Mould Making For Potters – 5 Week Course

Mould Making For Potters – 5 Week Course

Starting Wednesday 13th October 6 – 9 pm

In this course you will learn the basics about how to make basic moulds for potters.

Even if you are a hand builder or production thrower, being able to make a mould is very handy. You can short cut making keep cups by slip casting them, make drying slabs for your porcelain work, make amazing slump and drape mould for your hand building, or even do simple things like using a handle mould to make a fancy press handle for your thrown work. some potters make little texture moulds for adding lugs and additions. How you use the learning from this course is up to your imagination – you will learn the basic skills and basic elements and then you an grow from there.

WEEK ONE

• Potter’s plaster – what, why, when and where….
• The ins and outs of casting slip
• The types of moulds and what you need to watch for
• Make the plug for a simple drop out mould (eg, keep cup)

WEEK TWO

• Set up a casting box for moulding the simple drop out mould
• Learn how to calculate the amount of plaster to mix and how to deal with the left over
• Cast your plug
• Learn clean up essentials
• Cast drape or slump moulds with any excess plaster

WEEK THREE

• Prepare a plug for simple two piece mould
• Differences between casting slip and regular clay and why regualr clay has difficulties being made into slip for casting
• Mix slip
• Clay weight, slip problems and corrections
• Slip cast drop out mould if its dry enough
• Prepare a drape mould and cast it in plaster

WEEK FOUR

• Prepare and cast one or both sides of the two part mould
• Make small lug, texture or fancy handle plug and mould

WEEK FIVE

• Finish two part mould.
• Cast and alter
• Drape and slump ,moulding
• Using lugs and texture moulds

Everything you need is provided…you might want to bring in a favourite item to cast!